Veedub Classics

Well, its been a while. and I kind of left you hanging, but I'm still her, and so is my new bug. I have been working on it quite a lot and I thought I would finally share that with you guys. I've been doing a lot today to get ready for the last call VW show tomorrow. I guess that's what inspired me to finally post my updates to my bug. So here goes:

When I first got the car the brakes, front bushings, and ball joints didn't pass inspection. So we got the new bushings in no problem. The ball joints were really tricky. We found that you have to have an adapter for the ball joint remover that exactly fits the ball joint or you will not be able to get it out. Luckily autozone has a kit for rent that fits perfectly. So that wasn't so hard.

The brakes on the other hand were an absolute nightmare. It took me forever to finally get them adjusted right. First off I was told the cylinder was leaking, so I replaced it. Then as I tried bleeding the lines I ended up having to replace all the wheel cylinders. I finally got them bleed but the brakes would not work. Me and my dad worked forever on those brakes bleeding and bleeding and the brakes wouldn't work. Well come to find out the leak was still there. It was actually the $5.00 brake switch that was leaking. Well I replaced that and the brakes still didn't work right. I thought I had bleed them enough and I could not get them to work. I thought my new master cylinder was bad. But luckily before I replaced that again. I talked to a guy in my neighborhood who works on old VW's, and he said to try bleeding again, and bleed it through all the way. I decided to try it and I bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed each wheel cylinder. Finally I got the brakes to work, 3 weeks later!

I was finally able to get in registered! That was an exciting day. I've also been batling the Gen light for the alternator. It keeps coming or randomly but the battery still amintains 13 or so volts. At first I thought it was the fan belt. So I replaced that but I forgot to tighten the pulley all the way down. The next day I drove to a friends house and while I was on the freeway the fan belt slipped and wore a hole through the vacuum line next to the belt. I tried repairing it with tape but the belt wore through that too. I stopped at another friends house on the way home, I was dropping him off. And luckily his Uncle who was a mechanic was there and he helped me fix the fan belt using the only tools we could find, a pipe wrench and a screwdriver. Later when I got home I tightened it up properly and replaced the taped up hose. But hey, the pipe wrench and duct tape got me home.

The rest I've done to my car has been pretty simple. I fixed the trunk lock, replaced the missing antennae. I couldn't figure out how to get the plug to the radio so I drilled my own small hole it would fit through and custom made a grommet using bits of whatever I could find and it worked out well. It is really exciting having an AM/FM radio and cd player with a hookup for my Ipod. I loved my old car but its radio was pretty sad. I added arm rests to the door panels and cut the whole for and hooked up the interior lighting. I also put in a stock rear view mirror. They guy had an after market one that attached to the windshield but the problem was he had it so high up, I couldn't see hardly anything out the back window. I also made a speaker shelf for behind the rear seat. You may also recognize some parts from my old car that I moved over, front seat belts, center console, drink holder. I also cut and fit wood paneling for the drivers side out of some leftovers the previous owner had from making a wood panel for the glove box.And then the latest thing I added, today, is the new floor mats. With winter coming up I wanted something to protect the carpet and these were $11 at Autozone and then I cut them to fit. They turned out pretty good. Now I want to get a new trunk liner.

Then today I also washed waxed and vacuumed the car to make it look good for the car show. And my parents were nice enough to let me keep it in the garage tonight so it stays nice. I'm excited for the show, and I still owe you guys pictures from the last bug show, but I'll get them to you eventually.

New Floor Mats

The Arm Rests I installed

Here's the stock mirror I put on

The wood panel for the drivers side turned out good.

I also added a bit of interior lighting

Recognize these seat belts from my old car?

This is the speaker shelf I made.

The center console from my old car.

One of the new bushings we put on.

the new, already rusty, master cylinder.

Here is the replacement vacuum line.

I spent some time researching to put the vacuum lines in the correct places.

New antennae

Here is where I fed the antennae line to the radio.

Here is how the trunk looks now.

I also found the old jack for the car and greased it, so it works great now.
I also bought a lug wrench so I can change the tire if need be.

My current project is to hook up the stock washer bottle to and electric pump.
This one also came from my old car. I don't know why they had a super beetle pump my old car.